In The Desert
"Hey, Julian. I'm your friend Liam, that's my new number. why didn't you come to school today?"
"I was busy." Julian answered.
"With what?" Liam was curious.
"I fell down the stairs." Julian lied.
[+1 Point]
"I'm sorry. do you want me to send you my notes?" Asked Liam.
"Point? Oh don't worry, I won't need them." Julian closed the call and bought his groceries before remembering the dot. "What's that desert?"
He waited for a moment and nothing happened. Julian sighed, before going back home. "That button might have something to do with this."
He pressed the dot.
[On Cooldown]
"I should've expected that." He sat on bed and started thinking. "Liar? I saw something like that on the screen." He thought and then called Liam. "Hey Liam, I wanted to tell you something."
"What is it?" Liam said suspiciously.
"I actually won't be able to go to school for the whole week, because my arm was broken." Julian said in a cold tone.
[+1 Point]
"Sorry I have to go charge my phone." He suddenly closed the call.
[+1 Point]
Julian smirked. "I think that's more interesting now." Julian went back to the market and gave the worker cash. "I forgot to pay earlier." He said before the worker took his cash and thanked him.
[+1 Point]
"So it works with every lie I tell?" He smirked and went to a random person on the street. "Hello James, I'm your friend Liam."
"I don't have a friend named Liam actually, so stay away from me." The man pushed him away in discomfort.
"Alright." Julian said before running away from the guy.
He stopped for a moment to catch his breath. "Did I break it?" He walked back home. "In total, I got 4 points. What are they used for?" He waited. "Aren't systems supposed to answer that?" He got to his room and lied down on the couch before falling asleep.
Next morning, Julian woke up and went to wash his face. "Good morning cold water." He then noticed a soft pulse on the button and pressed it.
[start]
[stats]
He pressed on stats and started reading them. "I see."
[Liar]
[Hidden]
[Points: 4]
[Wisdom: 2]
[Force: 1]
[Space: 1]
[Charisma: 2]
[Luck: 4]
(No Skills)
He added all his points on force and pressed the starting button to go back to the desert again, this time a skeleton saw him and attacked but he dodged.
"Skeletons? How original." He punched the skeleton and dodged to the left before punching his face again.
The skeleton looked at him angrily before slamming him with his rusty sword.
He tried to block it with his arms but it injured him. "Argh! Blood?" He looked at his wound before kicking the knee of the monster and headbutting its face, stealing the sword.
Julian kicked the skeleton to the ground and thrusted the sword into its skull, shattering it.
[you killed a monster! +1 Point]
[first monster killed! +5 points]
Julian was panting and trying to regain his power but two sand golems rose from the sand around him, he tried to stab the first, but his sword got stuck inside.
The golem punched him and sent him flying next to the skeleton corpse, he grabbed the arm of the skeleton and rushed at the golem, slashed the bone through its head.
The golem's head regenerated and he tried to attack Julian but he dodged and slashed with the bone through the golems chest and hitting a solid object. "What?"
He grabbed the sword from its chest and charged at the other golem cutting it in half with a slash, then he pushed his hand to steal the stone. "Is that their engine?" He looked at the golem turning into normal sand before being hit by the other golem.
He tried standing up but the pain was too much to bear, then the golem started charging to hit him again with his fists.
He pushed the sword inside the golem's chest, trying to stab the stone but missing. He then tried pulling the stone with his sword while standing up, damaging both his hands and the sword.
[+3 Notifications]
"Hm?" He checked them.
[+1 Point]
[+1 Point]
[Shop Is Now Accessible]
[area cleared 1%]
[stats]
[shop]
[Points: 3]
[Gift 1P]
[Sword 2P]
[Start Stone 3P]
"Interesting, I'm gonna buy a gift and a sword, since this one won't endure another fight." He looked at the broken blade before pressing on the items.
[open]
He opened the box and found a small purse, full of golden coins. "Wow, that's so useless. Talking about useless the golems dropped those stones." He grabbed them. "Interesting."
[examining…]
[Core]
[tier 1]
[magic 92/100]
[a magical object used to store magic]
[Core]
[tier 1]
[magic 89/100]
[a magical object used to store magic]
[you found a new entry! +1 Point]
[you found your first entry! +5 Points]
[learn recipe -10 Points]
"A recipe?" He pressed the button.
[first recipe learnt! +50 points]
He looked at his stats before adding most of his points.
[Liar]
[Hidden]
[Points: 11]
[Wisdom: 10]
[Force: 10]
[Space: 10]
[Charisma: 10]
[Luck: 10]
(No Skills)
[+4 Notifications]
"What's that for?" He opened the notifications and was surprised.
[Learn Skill: Knowledge -10 Points]
[Learn Skill: Charge -10 Points]
[Learn Skill: Dash -10 Points]
[Learn Skill: Locate -10 Points]
"Skill might be useful for now." He started reading the information about each skill.
[Knowledge]
[requirements: 10 Wisdom]
[level 1]
[enchanting Wisdom, +0.1% Wisdom]
[Charge]
[requirements: 10 Force]
[level 1]
[charging Force, +0.1% Force]
[Dash]
[requirements: 10 Space]
[level 1]
[increasing Space, +0.1% Space]
[Locate]
[requirements: 3 Skills Unlocked]
[level 1]
[locating tier 1 Monsters on 20m range]
"Well, that's not what I expected by 'skills', but locate might be useful for now at least." He said before pressing on locate.
[first skill obtained! +20 points]
"I'm just gonna buy Charge and put the rest on Force."
He then started walking in the dessert using Locate skill to find more monsters.
[on cooldown]
"What are these skills?!" He threw his sword on the ground but slipped, noticing a menu he didn't see."
[area cleared 1.2%]
[stats]
[skill tree]
[crafting]
[storage 4/500]
[shop]
He pressed on crafting, checking the recipe.
[Core]
[tier 1]
[5 Magical Stones (tier 1)]
[new entry +1 Point]
[learn recipe -10 points]
"10 points?! That's a scam!" He stood up and continued searching.
[monsters nearby]
"What." He looked at the notification for a brief moment, before looking around. "But there's nothing here." A giant sand worm came from the sand suddenly ate his whole body.
[disconnected]
He saw his face in the mirror, getting caught off guard and jumping away. "What was that." He stood up and went outside for a walk, planning for his next move in the desert.
"Building a camp would be a must, but only if I can get resources. I also need to learn the magical stones recipe, and possibly finding a way to get more monsters, or points?" He smirked and went to get more points.
[knowledge, charge and dash have a short cooldown and can stack up to 10 times, but they stay for a short period of time]
After time, Julian checked his points while stretching, ready to go to the desert.
[Points: 9]
"So turns out I get points on the number of people believing my lies." He puts his points on luck, and presses start.
[Liar]
[Hidden]
[Points: 0]
[Wisdom: 10]
[Force: 21]
[Space: 10]
[Charisma: 10]
[Luck: 19]
(Locate 1, Charge 1)
[area cleared: 2%]
"Any notifications?" He waited for a second before checking the skill tree. "I can upgrade charge? Okay that's today's goal, and the magical stones." He closes the window and goes searching in the desert.
Suddenly a skeleton attacked him, but he took out his sword and parried the attack before using charge and stabbing the skeleton.
His sword got stuck inside of the skeleton's ribcage so he kicked the skeleton away and used charge again before pushed the skeleton with his shoulder.
The skeleton tried slashing with its sword but Julian hit its skull with his sword.
[+1 Points]
"What's with those skeletons, walking alone." Julian saw a sand golem raising from the sand, but a giant one.
"What are you?" He slashed the monster but his sword didn't reach the core, then he tried attacking multiple times while using the charge skill.
[critical hit]
[first critical hit! +10 Points]
He cut the monster's arm off and jumped on its shoulder while it regenerates, trying to stab the core from its back until the golem threw him away.
He grabbed the skeleton's sword from the ground and pushed it inside the golem's chest before dodged an attack.
"That was close." He used his sword to push the skeleton's sword further inside, breaking the core.
He felt danger and moved away from the golem, but he wasn't fast enough and the explosion injured him.
[boss killed]
[+20 Points]
[first boss, +20 Points]
[entry updated: Core]
[recipe unlocked: Magic Bombs]
[learn recipe -10 points]
"51? Not bad." He used 40 points to buy the other skills and recipes and put the rest on stats.
[Liar]
[Hidden]
[Points: 0]
[Wisdom: 16]
[Force: 21]
[Space: 15]
[Charisma: 10]
[Luck: 19]
(Locate 1, Charge 1, Knowledge 1, Dash 1)
[area cleared 7.9%]
He looked around to see if there's anything close, and saw a tower. "What is this doing here?" He ran to the tower and after reaching it he opened the door, it was just an empty tower with one staircase.
"Weird." He went up and found a chest, shining with bright colors.
[+100 points]
[+5% area cleared]
[found 5 Core (full)]
[found 50 Magical Stones]
[reached 10% area cleared! +10 Points]
"I think I'll keep the points this time, for a change." He walked outside of the tower.
[locating…]
[200 monsters found]
"What, where?" He looked around before noticing the weak earthquake and hid behind the tower's entrance.
[Magic Bombs]
[tier 1]
[1 Core (tier 1), 1 Magical Stone (tier1)]
[craft]
[crafting 1 Magic Bomb…]
[Success]
[first item crafted! +10 Points]
He held the bomb and looked around the tower.
[mission: first raid]
[kill monsters 0/200]
[prize: 10% area clearance, 25 Points]
[each monster equals double Points]
He walks outside before the sand golems starts emerging from the sand, and he used all his three skills and threw the bomb at the middle of them, before crafting another four.
[monsters killed 23/200]
He started running at the golems, attacking their cores to do maximum damage with the explosions. As it was easier to reach the cores of the normal golems due to their size.
[39/200]
He held another bomb and ran around the golems to gather them in a small place while dodging, but then he threw another bomb at the middle of them.
[65/200]
He kept using the same strategy and while trying to regain his stamina before getting another notification.
[only 120 left, golems are merging]
He looked at the giant sand golem and the few golems left with fear.
"What is that thing…" He ran at the few golems and killed all of them, leaving only the giant.
[100/200]
He tried slashing random parts of the giant but none had a core until he noticed a shiny part in its chest. "Did the cores merge as well?" He climbed the tower while running and then jumped with his sword at the giant golem's core, unable to reach it.
The golem tried throwing him away but then he grabbed the three bombs left in his inventory and pushed them inside with the sword while trying to jump away from the giant.
The explosion pushed him at the tower, destroying it and Julian's bones.
[artifact obtained: The Giant Golem Core]
[200 golems killed, +400 Points]
"I'm glad…" he said before fainting, returning to the normal world.
"I thought I'd die there." He went to get himself a glass of water and started putting his Points.
[Liar]
[Hidden]
[Points: 206]
[Wisdom: 80]
[Force: 120]
[Space: 80]
[Charisma: 40]
[Luck: 90]
(Locate 1, Charge 1, Knowledge 1, Dash 1)
[area cleared 22.9%]
[skills upgrades unlocked]
[Locate 2, Charge 2, Knowledge 2, Dash 2]
[upgrade: -10 Points per skill]
[50% Success Rate (SR)]
[upgrade: -20 Points per skill]
[100% Success Rate (SR)]
[-80 Points]
[Points: 126]
"Let me check those." Said Julian.
[Knowledge]
[requirements: 50 Wisdom]
[level 2]
[enchanting Wisdom, +0.5% Wisdom]
[Charge]
[requirements: 50 Force]
[level 2]
[charging Force, +0.5% Force]
[Dash]
[requirements: 50 Space]
[level 2]
[increasing Space, +0.5% Space]
[Locate]
[requirements: 3 Skills (level 2)]
[level 2]
[locating tier 1 and 2 Monsters on 100m range]
"That's actually still bad." He said before checking for any notifications.
[merge unlocked]
[skills unlocked: Force]
"Merge? Also, unlock skill." He pressed the unlock button.
[-10 Points]
[Force]
[requirements: 100 Force]
[level 1]
[using your Force to create explosions]
He then checked the merge menu, surprised by the weird name.
[merge]
[allowing you to merge recipes, skills or even abilities. (SR) depending on tier and type]
"That's amazing, I want to merge Charge and Dash."
[Merge: 1000 Points (50% SR)]
"Oh." He closed the menu.
[you gained 73 Cores]
[would you like to sell them, 0 Points per Core]
"No." He started checking his stats, adding points to luck.
[Liar]
[Hidden]
[Points: 100]
[Wisdom: 80]
[Force: 120]
[Space: 80]
[Charisma: 40]
[Luck: 122]
(Locate 2, Charge 2, Knowledge 2, Dash 2, Force 1)
[area cleared 24.4%]
"Finally, I can rest." He tried to sleep.
The next day, he noticed the button glowing in a weird blue color, he decided to press start.
[rare event]
[starts in 11 hours and 59 minutes]
"Where's the start button?"
He sighed before having a new idea. "Stats."
[Liar]
[Hidden]
[Points: -]
[Wisdom: 8]
[Force: 12]
[Space: 8]
[Charisma: 4]
[Luck: 12.2]
(-)
"Why're they low?" Julian then noticed a note.
[Stats gained in the tutorial are 10%]
He then thought before testing his strength. "I think I'm ten times stronger, that means…" he went to his old lab and analyzed his works. "Interesting indeed" he took out all of his inventions from the box and started dismantling them and getting only the parts he needs.
"I can see it." He smirked before starting to work. "First I'll finish this." He got all his tools and started drawing on his board. "No, that wouldn't be stable." He changed the looks of the gauntlet. "Excellent! Now, the power source would be… wait." He tried using his Force skill and made a small explosion. "That should work! And I'll use my hands for pulling." He smirked and started editing his drawing.
"Yes, that should do." He worked for a few hours and finished all the parts quicker than usual, now all that's left is to put them together.
[The Gauntlet]
[grappling hook 1]
[Energy: -]
[Durability: 100%]
"That should do, putting the grappling hook on this side also makes it easier to pull the rope." He smiled before wearing the gauntlet. "I should test it, but I can't walk outside with it." He used his storage to store the gauntlet.
Outside, Julian was walking casually to an empty alley before taking out his gauntlet and shooting the grappling hook at the roof of a building, only for it to fall and almost crush his head. "I think I'll need to work on the force I use." He tried using more force and aiming then the grappling hook finally stuck in the building, he held it with his hands and carefully started climbing the building. "Finally." Julian said, falling on his back after reaching the roof. "Now the hard part." He looked from the edge at the street under him. "I can't jump, isn't there any other way?"
He checked for anything he could use and decide to start climbing down, he fell midway but got minimum injuries. "That could've gone worse, I'll have to find a way to fix that." He walked out of the alley and returned home.
[rare event]
[starts in 7 hours and 12 minutes]
"There's still a lot of time." He looked at the gauntlet. "I know what I need to do." He got his board and erased the hook. "I'll make it detachable, and add a spike too." He started working on the hook and upgraded the gauntlet as well."
[The Gauntlet]
[grappling hook 2]
[durability 1]
[Energy: -]
[Durability: 98%]
"Haha." Julian smiled brightly and wore the gauntlet, shooting at his water bottle and pulling it. "It would be a lot harder with humans, but I think it should work."
"Time to work on something else, maybe I should try making a crossbow?" He copied the gauntlet drawing to his journal before erasing it from the board and getting multiple crossbow pictures. "I never tried making a crossbow, this might take a lot more time." He sighed before getting an idea, he drew a small crossbow that can be attached to the gauntlet. "I'm a genius, I'll rest now before working."
Julian stretched and checked the timer. "There's still a lot of time. Now, there's something I wanted to check for some time."
[+1 Notification]
"What?" He opened the notification.
[Julian, I would like to greet you myself.]
"Who are you?" Julian looked skeptically at the notification.
[I am one of the elders,]
[the owners of magic itself.]
"Well, that's interesting. Is greeting me all you're after?"
[I may as well answer one of your questions]
Julian expressed confusion. "Why would you?"
[Curiosity.]
[We are curious of what a human would ask.]
"Then…" Julian thought. "I have my question ready."
"My question is why don't you shut up, I'm not interested in your offer." He smiled with sarcasm.
[…]
[the elder is disappointed]
Julian opened his stats window. "Can I raise them without using points?" He started training.
[error: unknown]
[loading…]
[unable to fix]
[rare event]
[starts in 3 seconds]
[2 seconds]
[teleporting…]
"Wait!" Julian fell on his back in shock, looking around to see the same desert. however, it was full of giants bones.
[rare event]
[read information]
He pressed on the window.